<p>Many students here at Johns Hopkins are sons and daughters of neurosurgeons, nurses, and doctors… lol.</p>
<p>There are also many wealthy kids on financial aid because their parents are “gaming” the system.</p>
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<p>Other than merit scholarships, I cant say I’ve ever heard of that…</p>
<p>I’ve heard that there is a federal loophole on FAFSA that allows small business owners to report less assets (like… not owning their business) if their business has 99 employees or less… It was meant to allow small business owners to not tank the US economy by having to mortgage out their business to finance their children’s education and to encourage small business entrepreneurship… and to keep small business paying jobs or whatever :-P</p>
<p>I can tell you from personal knowledge,
It’s not easy being a wealthy kid at a college with a not-so-wealthy student body.</p>
<p>Really, well let give you some real life examples:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Parents who have bought expensive homes in silicon valley worth millions because some schools don’t count your primary residence - completely legal.</p></li>
<li><p>People who own businesses who write all kinds of stuff and show no real income - completely legal.</p></li>
<li><p>People who have relatives who they have given their assets (money) to - some living here or in other countries without paying any gift tax - illegal.</p></li>
</ol>
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<p>I can tell you from personal knowledge, it’s not difficult.</p>
<p>It’s justified… Who honestly believes a piece of paper is worth 200K… Honestly, hackers are out there that can forge false transcript documents, set up a alumnus verification telephone service, and forge pretty legit looking PhD diplomas left and right for only $100 bucks. :D</p>
<p>It makes Higher Education, charging 50K for a 4 year degree look like a great big SCAM :D</p>
<p>Gaming the system can only work to a small extent. How many wealthy people want their kids to go to FAFSA only schools?</p>
<p>And Dionte, your dad is a Temple CEO! Aren’t you the richest kid on campus? Do you just share your caviar care packages?</p>
<p>Gaming the system the way I just explained works everywhere, its independent of the CSS profile. It certainly works at Harvard which is a place I would imagine some wealthy people might want to send their kids.</p>
<p>How would it work at Harvard, Profile counts the ‘small’ business and adds back in business losses.</p>
<p>It’s a very small world, you know, 6 degrees of seperation? You kid coming out of the aid office and having a work study job might raise some eyebrows.</p>
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<p>I dont know what a ‘Temple CEO’ is, but save your condescension…
Caviar? Yeah, no…</p>
<p>Example: the multimillon dollar primary residence is not counted in Harvard’s financial aid formula. So the family makes 180k pays 18000 in tuition and has an ultra expensive primary residence while another family makes less, they live in a modest home that’s paid for and their assets are in a money market fund - who do you think is going to pay more?</p>
<p>By the way do you think all small business owners are reporting all their income??</p>
<p>A family making $180K is not wealthy or living in a mansion. Yes, Harvard amazingly doesn’t count the home, Stanford and most do, don’t know about Y and P. </p>
<p>It would be unusual to be wealthy and have only one home in America today. The $180K family is probably living in a high cost of living area. They may well send their kids to private school–$20-$40K per kid–or the good school district they live in means outrageous taxes. There’s a reason rich schools are offering these folks some aid. They weren’t getting these kids when they didn’t.</p>
<p>Certainly it’s controversial, but it’s their choice.</p>
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<p>We have one house, and just bought a condo. Trust me, it’s not remotely unusual.</p>
<p>Thank you for ignoring my reply.</p>
<p>The condo makes 2. Trust me, I work with the wealthy all over the Country, 1 house is unusual.</p>
<p>“A family making $180K is not wealthy or living in a mansion. Yes, Harvard amazingly doesn’t count the home, Stanford and most do, don’t know about Y and P.”</p>
<p>By most standards for financial aid, 180k and above doesn’t qualify for aid hence the use of the term “wealthy”. Whether of not one lives in an expensive area or cheap area, one can always buy a house sufficiently expensive to eliminate all other assets. By the way, even in CA and other expensive places, when you live in a town with mainly multimillion dollar homes, you’re in a wealthy not typical town or area.</p>
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<p>Well I went nearly 21 years with one, and my parents went 3x as long. Super.</p>
<p>By the way, there are families who make 180K or more who show very little income.</p>